Dusting flour



Patented June 24, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JEFFREY a. stream, or LA GRANGE, AND mommeun r. from. or cmoaeo, rumors, assronoas 'ro summws mums coma, a conrominon' or 11;.Lnm g DUSTING FLOUR.

Ho Drawing. Application filed Kay 8,

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, JEFFREY R. SHORT and MONTAGUE F. HUNT, citizens of the United States, residing, respectively, at La 6 Grange and Chicago, county of Cook, State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Dustin Flour,and declare the following to be a fu 1, clear, and exact description of the same, such as will 10 enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same.

In the manufacture of bakery products it is necessary that the dough or the mechanism, or both, be dusted with a dry flour at 1 intervals during the course of the dough from the mixer to the oven. The purpose of using dusting flour is to prevent the dough from sticking to the machinery or a paratus throu h which the dough passes and it must there ore be capable 0 taking up moisture from the surface of the dough. Furthermore, the surface of the bread or other bakery product should not be rendered cloudy on account of the presence of the dusting 2 flour. It is also desirable that the dusting flour be of such a nature that it will flow freely from the dusting boxes, so as to insure uniformity and steadiness of flow and permit the rate of flow to be nicely regulated.

Another factor which must of course be considered is that of cost of material, the cost depending not only on the unit value of the particular flour em loyed but also on the amount which must e used to secure the de sired results.

The object of the present invention is to produce a novel dusting flour which will answer all of the foregoing requirements, be of comparatively low cost per unit, and, be-

cause of special roperties which it possesses, make possible t e use of a smaller quantity of dusting flour as compared with wheat flour and other low absorbing materials used for dusting purposes.

In carryin out our invention, we employed the mixture of a fiour made out of corn product, which is partly gelatinized. Such a flour may be made out of corn grits, steamed until wholly or partly gelatinized, rolled into flakes, and then ground into a very fine flour. A flour of this kind will run freely through the dusting devices instead of clotting, and will therefore distribute more evenly over the dough and the 1922. Serial No. 659,459.

working surfaces of the machines. Its cost 18 lower than wheat flour, and due to the fact that 1t will show a hi h absorption, at proximately 200%, a smal uantity may Be used to accomplish the tiliject required. Moreover, it works into the dough more readily because of gelatinization, compared with which, ordinary ungelatinized corn flour would retain its gritty character and would show a cloudy ap earance on the crust. This we largely e iminated by the fact that this special oorn flour is partly gelatlmzed. To make this still more certam, we mix with it a quantity of a specially selected wheat flour. Certain grades of wheat flour will exhibit a greater degree of color in the finished roduct than others, and we use a flour which will aid in coloring the crust and in overcoming any tendency to cloudiness. The presence of the wheat flour also retards the flowi quality of the s cial corn flour, which, being very dry an granular, might flow too freely otherwise.

Wheat flour, when used alone for dustin carries into the bread a gluten content whic is only very slightly fermented, and being st1cky, results frequentl in streaking of the crumb and often in t e accumulation of small particles of dough, whereas in our dusting flour the tendency to streaking is reduced in two ways: 1. The fact that a very small percentage of gluten is included owing to a minimum quantity of wheat flour being used. 2. The high percentage of gelatinized starch in the special corn flour is effective in distributing this smaller gluten content thru the dough.

'Moreover, due to the fact that our flour is less sticky, we eliminate to a considerable extent the ossibility of-dou h accumulations in the different mechanica devices used in handling the dougha condition which is present when wheat flour is used for dusting and which results frequently in stoppages and losses due to the accumulation of doughs and the loss of power and labor.

Ordinarily we prefer to use from seventyfive to eighty er cent of the corn flour and from twentyve to twenty per cent of the wheat flour; but the corn flour content might possibly be reduced to fifty per cent and the wheat flour content i ht possibl be reduced to ten per cent. f course, i desired,

other kinds of flour may be mixed with our improved dusting flour serving, as it were, to dilute the same.

Other materials are sometimes used for dusting fpurposes. Ordinary corn flour, because 0 its nature, does not distribute as freely and does not exhibit econom in the quantity used because of the fact that it is not a high absorption product, and being ungelatinized, has a tendency to show white streaks in the bread, and cloudiness on the crust. Similar objections can be made to rice flour.

We claim:

1. A dusting flour composed of a flour 15 made of a corn (froduct at least partially gelatlmzed, mixe with a lesser amount of wheat flour.

2. A dusting flour composed of about three parts of flour made of a corn product 20 H at least partially gelatinized, and about one part of heat our.

In testimony whereof, we sign this specification.

JEFFREY R. SHORT. MONTAGUE F. HUNT.

Certificate of Correction.

It is hereby certified that the assignee in Letters Patent No. 1,499,080, granted June 24, 1924, upon the application of J'efi're v R. Short. of La Gran and Montague l". Hunt, of Chicago, Illinois, for an improvement in Dusting $101113 was erroneously described and specified as Andrews Milling Company, whereas said nssignee should have been described and specified as J. It. Short Milling Company, as shown by the records of assignments m this office; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 23d day of December, A. D. 1924.

[an-LL] KARL FENNING,

Acting Commz'saioner of Patents. 

